美味的发现:科学家描述了new onion species from the Himalaya

Date:: October 18, 2021
Source:: Pensoft Publishers
Summary:: While the onion, garlic, scallion, shallot and chives have been on our plates for centuries, becoming staple foods around the world, their group, the genus Allium, seems to be a long way from running out of surprises. Recently, a group of researchers from India described a new onion species from the western Himalaya region, long known to the locals as 'jambu' and 'phran.'
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The genusAlliumcontains about 1,100 species worldwide, including many staple foods like onion, garlic, scallion, shallot and chives. Even though this group of vegetables has been making appearances at family dinners for centuries, it turns out that it is a long way from running out of surprises, as a group of researchers from India recently found out.

In 2019, Dr. Anjula Pandey, Principal Scientist at ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources in New Delhi, together with scientists, Drs K Madhav Rai, Pavan Kumar Malav and S Rajkumar, was working on the systematic botany of the genusAlliumfor the Indian region, when the team came across plants of what would soon be confirmed as a new species for science in the open-access journalPhytoKeys.

The plant, calledAllium negianum,was discovered in the Indo-Tibetan border area of Malari village, Niti valley of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand. It grows at 3000 to 4800 m above sea level and can be found along open grassy meadows, sandy soils along rivers, and streams forming in snow pasture lands along alpine meadows (locally known as "bugyal"or "bugial"), where the melting snow actually helps carry its seeds to more favourable areas. With a pretty narrow distribution, this newly described speciesis restricted to the region of western Himalaya and hasn't yet been reported from anywhere else in the world. The scientific nameAllium negianumhonours the late Dr. Kuldeep Singh Negi, an eminent explorer andAlliumcollector from India.

虽然新的科学,这个物种一直蜜蜂n known under domestic cultivation to local communities. While working on this group, the research team heard ofphran,jambu,sakua,sungdung,andkacho-- different local names for seasoning onions. According to locals, the one from Niti valley was particularly good, even deemed the best on the market.

So far only known from the western Himalaya region,Allium negianummight be under pressure from people looking to taste it: the researchers fear that indiscriminate harvest of its leaves and bulbs for seasoning may pose a threat to its wild populations.